Sunday, March 4th, 2007...11:28 pm

Mad Dog Goes Nuts

I’ve been listening to the Mike & The Mad Dog radio show on WFAN since it began in 1989. I would come home from elementary school and turn on my radio to listen to Francesa and Russo yap away about sports. They were two of my sports heroes. I remember making my father take me to a local gym to watch a WFAN charity basketball game so I could meet Mike and the Dog and get their autographs.

I’m not really sure how to properly explain Mike & The Mad Dog. I do know that if you listen to them regularly you’re a true New York sports fan. Mike has an arrogance that is only matched in stature by his waistline and firmly believes he is the definitive source of sports knowledge. Dog’s screechy voice, hot temper and inability to correctly pronounce words longer than three syllables make him utterly ridiculous. Add to the mix the passionate and biased New York callers and perhaps you start to get a feel for the chaos that ensues each and every weekday afternoon. If you want a great description of the show check out the Sports Guy’s take.

The show works because Mike and The Mad Dog play off of each other perfectly. They are two buddies shooting the shit and talking sports. Every listener wants to be part of their conversation. Not many people admit to loving the radio show but they can’t help but listen. My father is an addict. He’ll make comments like “They say Isaiah is toast even if the Knicks make the playoffs” or “I hear Clemens is going to Boston in July”. It sounds impressive at first, like he has some kind of inside scoop, but all he is really doing is repeating what he heard on the show.

Once in awhile Mike or Dog will host the show solo. Lacking the back and forth banter between the two the show is pretty ordinary and difficult to enjoy. My buddy Dave (who watches the show on the YES network instead of going to work) showed me this youtube clip last week of Dog going bonkers over the Pac Man Jones fiasco. If you like the show you’ll really appreciate how wound up Russo gets and how he then explodes without Mike to keep him in check. If you’ve never listened before you might think this is the wackiest clip ever. The build up is great but if you want to skip to the most amazing moments go to the 5:10 mark and watch from there.